There's no BS in Social Selling

If I’m not wrong, the empirical data and evidence for social selling is now undeniable. Studies from the big research houses, anecdotal evidence and success stories from sales professionals all point to this fact.

So it boggles my mind why sales reps and leadership keep coming up with excuses on why they’d rather hold on to the status quo. Status quo is the killer of sales cultures and of companies.

Here at Sales for Life, we talk to a lot of people in sales (reps, leaders, management, sales enablement and effectiveness). This gives us a view into the mindset of how most people think. Here is a comical list of the most common objections to social selling that are totally and utterly BS.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

The problem is not that things aren’t broke, but your inability to admit that they’re broke. We know that the majority of B2B buying decisions today are made online (some would argue up to 70%). If that is the case, then what are you expecting out of cold calling and e-mailing? Are these strategies by themselves still working?

It’s time to go where your buyers live: online. If you pride yourself on being where your buyers are, then why aren’t you online yet?

Too Much Effort

I’ve heard this from some of the most senior executives in major organizations: social selling takes too much effort. What they mean to say is “we’ve got too much on the go right now.” Well, ask yourself what will happen if you continue down the current path?

Does social selling take effort? Absolutely! But what’s the alternative? The key is to start now. Start with whatever you have and build from there. Sales leaders sometimes treat their sales departments like a laboratory experiments. In the quest to finely control every variable, they lose sight of the bigger picture of what’s happening in and around them.

My Buyer Isn’t Online

Let that sink in for a moment. If you are on the quest to buy a camera today, where do you start your search? Is it the yellow pages? A trade show? Or do you just head to Google? The answer is fairly obvious.

B2B buyers are also people and their habits of searching for consumer products and services have now completely penetrated their work life as well. This means that they’re heading to Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of other places to find information about hardware, software, legal services, financial services, packaging products, and any other industry you can think of. They’re everywhere.

The Bottom Line

I can appreciate the nervousness that people have with social selling. Social media seems so foreign to the world of B2B buying and selling. However, the data is now irrefutable. Companies, sales professionals and buyers are having dynamic, fluid and engaging conversations online before a telephone is ever picked up or an e-mail is ever sent out. It’s now increasingly becoming the first place buyers turn to learn about things.

If you need help and guidance on getting started, feel free to contact me to get started. Social selling isn’t difficult; it’s just different.

To learn more about Social Selling check out 10 Steps to Becoming a Social Selling Machine or 9 Steps to a Winning LinkedIn Profile for Sales Professionals. For tips, tricks and more rants, we could always set-up a time to chat using my below schedule ...